What better way to herald the beginning of Spring than to show you the results of my Posture Screening, perpetrated upon my personhood when I was in the seventh grade??? This form shows that I had two out of the possible five signs for... oh, let's not kid ourselves: a spinal deformity. And, Indignity on top of Indignities, the nurse spells my last name WRONG. But, to be fair, she shows REMARKABLE RESTRAINT in not writing anything under "Other defects noted".

My sister Jane performs a 'skit' wherein she is the person making the school's morning announcements over the P.A. system, "Attention, please, Attention, please: MEGAN HAS SCOLIOSIS!"

I always had a special fondness for Judy Blume's book, Deenie, about a teenager who has scoliosis and has to get a Milawaukee brace. That was my fear, having to wear a brace, but didn't have to do that. I think I just stood straighter at the next screening.

I heard on Good Morning. America this... morning... that TODAY is the PRIME day for viewing the cherry trees in Washington, D.C., and that the Japanese had given these trees as a gift.

I thought I'd share this double-page spread from an Altered Calendar Round Robin group that I did a couple of years ago. I did this collage in Marion's Van Gogh calendar, and the original painting (right-hand side) was VG's Plum Tree in Bloom.

I used a variety of materials, including: illustrations from a Japanese calendar; color copy from a book on Czech folk toys; stickers; scrapbook, origami, and quilling papers. The lamps and bridge on the left-hand side were from Vacation Bible School curriculum that were made 3-D by folding and using foam tape to 'pop' them off the page.

Google Image search-- an Illustrator's best friend for doing research... Here are some Macaques, I had to do a kids' activity page featuring these monkey guys in a hot springs. Like little old men taking a steam.

So this semester (RISD Continuing Education) I'm taking Illustrator I, and we've been learning the Pen Tool. I've decided to get in some more practice using an old design of mine that used to be my business card. It was originally drawn with a technical pen, and was just a flat black design on white cardstock.

BUT NOW, after blowing up and scanning in the old image, I was able to use the Pen Tool to trace the shapes, then lay in a gradient. THIS IS BY NO MEANS A PERFECT RENDERING using the Pen Tool, but if I waited to post 'til I was perfect, I would never post!

After several failed attempts and many misshapen heads, I MASTER THE FINE ART OF DRAWING SPUNKY. But I don't sign up for art lessons through the mail. I see through that scam, because I am in the Third Grade, and am smarter, more savvy & worldwise than that.

Matreshka Doll, who later told me she wanted braids, so now she's more like Half-Matreshka/Half-Little Red Riding Hood (Half-Man/Half-Beast)!

The Matreshka Pillow has a 12x12" polyfil insert, with wool felt, wool felted balls, wool yarn, vintage trim, and cotton embroidery floss. Please click on the thumbnails below if you'd like to see the full-size version of each!

Blue Couched Cushion:

This pillow has a 14x14" polyfil insert, wool felt, felted wool balls, wool yarn, and cotton embroidery floss. Click on the thumbnails below to see the Squiggles (NOT the Australian kids' "band") up close & personal:

I'll be adding these two pillows to My Etsy Shop tomorrow, Friday, March the 24th!

Here's my latest promotional postcard, the reason behind the sketches that I showed yesterday. These just arrived today, Hot-n-Fresh from Modern Postcard.

I was laughing last night watching The Amazing Race,
when the teams were in Bavaria and wore outfits just like this one and
had to learn a complicated dance for one challenge.

Even funnier,
considering last week, while the teams were in Russia and had to open a
bazillion matreshka (nesting) dolls, I was working on a
Matreshka pillow at the time, which I hope to show you tomorrow!

If you'd like one of these postcards (they're BIG-- 6 x 8.5"!), poke on the E-MAIL link in the left-hand column, and I'll mail you one!

Happy St. Patrick's Day, everybody! Two years ago we had a family get-together, for which we drew names and had to write a limerick for that person. I made this thing as a 'presentation box' for the limerick. I challenged myself with only using stuff that I had on hand. And, what is my mantra? "NEVER throw anything away." So I had plenty of stuff to choose from.

Girls on the front of the box are from a card I made in the '80s (they're doing a "cut up" manuever), also shown: map of Ireland, painted wooden cubes with stickers attached, confettios... A ribbon serves as a closure...

Above is the side & back of the box, featuring a portion of a T-shirt I wore past the point of being decent (from an Irish Step Dancing event); my 4-H membership card from 1976-77 (more on 4-H another time); wide ribbon along spine; pieces of magazine...

The box opened...

Close-up of the inside of the box: a rainbow pin from highschool days, scrapbook papers, a realtor's postcard, trim, stickers, more confettios, several different layers of 'grass' from magazines/ grass advertisements. Leprechaun dude was a craft store find that I had bought years prior with no real reason behind the purchase. Cuz when you think about it, leprechauns are way down on the list of Essentials.

Door of box, with a pin from a 1983 Irish Step Dance event, also the pocket wherein the limerick would be held (with rickrack on top). An illustration by B.B. Sams I do believe, more ribbon, more scrapbook paper, more stickers, and more confettios (the shiny leprechauns).

Top of the box, so that you can see the continuation of the rainbow theme. The three shamrocks jutting out of the top of the box once graced cupcakes that I consumed in college. I told you I never throw anything away. But you have chosen not to believe me.

So, the person I had to write a limerick about/for is my mom:

A young girl from Conneaut,Of children, she had naught.The lass wanted a dozen,But she married her cousin,So 12-minus-7's all she got.

(By way of explanation, my dad is into genealogy. Through his research, he found out that he and my mom are actually seventh cousins. So I'm my own eighth cousin. Explains a lot, doesn't it? All that inbreeding = high-strung, nervous, and a tendency towards dramatic fainting spells.) (Not really.) (My mom did actually want twelve children. Dad wanted: ZERO, haha!)

A second post today to let everyone know that my etsy shop is now open! You can click on that link, or on the link in the left hand column under Links!, or if you prefer: www.megillustrations.etsy.com.Currently in the shop are seven of the pillows that I've featured on this blog. Thanks for taking a peek!